In February 1983, the US Department of Energy (DOE) identified a location in Deaf Smith County, Texas, as one of nine potentially acceptable sites for a mined geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. To determine their suitability, the Deaf Smith County site and the eight other potentially sites have been evaluated in accordance with the DOE's General Guidelines for the Recommendation of Sites for the Nuclear Waste Repositories. The Deaf Smith County site is in the Permian Basin, which is one of five distinct geohydrologic settings considered for the first repository. On the basis of the evaluations reported in this EA, the DOE has found that the Deaf Smith County site is not disqualified under the guidelines. On the basis of these findings, the DOE is nominating the Deaf Smith County site as one of the five sites suitable for characterization. 591 refs., 147 figs., 173 tabs.

In February 1983, the US Department of Energy (DOE) identified a location in Deaf Smith County, Texas, as one of the nine potentially acceptable sites for mined geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. To determine their suitability, the Deaf Smith County site and eight other potentially acceptable sites have been evaluated in accordance with the DOE's General Guidelines for the Recommendation of Sites for the Nuclear Waste Repositories. The Deaf Smith County site is in the Permian Basin, which is one of five distinct geohydrologic settings considered for the first repository. On the basis of the evaluations reported in this EA, the DOE has found that the Deaf Smith County site is not disqualified under the guidelines.

DOE has prepared a draft Supplement Analysis to the Texas Clean Energy Project due to changes made to the project after the issuance of the record of decision. See the draft SA for more detailed information on these changes.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 USC sections 10101-10226) requires the environmental assessment of a proposed site to include a statement of the basis for nominating a site as suitable for characterization. Volume 2 provides a detailed statement evaluating the site suitability of the Deaf Smith County Site under DOE siting guidelines, as well as a comparison of the Deaf Smith County Site to the other sites under consideration. The evaluation of the Deaf Smith County Site is based on the impacts associated with the reference repository design, but the evaluation will not change if based on the Mission Plan repository concept. The second part of this document compares the Deaf Smith County Site to Davis Canyon, Hanford, Richton Dome and Yucca Mountain. This comparison is required under DOE guidelines and is not intended to directly support subsequent recommendation of three sites for characterization as candidate sites. 259 refs., 29 figs., 66 refs. (MHB)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) prepared an EIS to analyze the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to construct and operate the Freeport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Liquefaction Project, which would expand an existing LNG import terminal and associated facilities in Brazoria County, Texas, to enable the terminal to liquefy and export LNG. DOE, Office of Fossil Energy – a cooperating agency in preparing the EIS – has an obligation under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act to authorize the import and export of natural gas, including LNG, unless it finds that the import or export is not consistent with the public interest.

More than 350 residents and students celebrated the grand opening of the first “green” building in Hidalgo County, Texas. The switch signified the county’s achievement in improving how public buildings are designed, built and operated, as well as its ongoing efforts to promote environmental sustainability. Learn more.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) prepared, with DOE as a cooperating agency, an EIS to analyze the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas export and import terminal on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay in Nueces and San Patricio Counties, Texas; a marine berth connecting the terminal to the adjacent La Quinta Channel; and an approximately 23-mile-long natural gas transmission pipeline and associated facilities.

Ben South is one of 157 Tannehill oil fields on the northeastern shelf of the Permian basin. Texas Railroad Commission District 7B has 66 Tannehill oil fields while District 8A has 21. The discovery well for the Ben South field was the Ryder Scott Management (Sauder) 1 McMeans, completed in 1973. Ben South field production has totaled 749,340 bbl of oil through March 1983 from 13 wells. Oil production is from the lower Tannehill (lower Wolfcamp) sands underlying the Stockwether Limestone. These Tannehill sands were deposited in a fluvial environment. Channel-fill and point-bar deposits make up the pay sands. The trapping mechanism is both stratigraphic and structural.

This report presents the results of the preliminary assessment (PA) conducted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Texas Army National Guard property in Bastrop County, Texas. Preliminary assessments of federal facilities are being conducted to compile the information necessary for completing preremedial activities and to provide a basis for establishing corrective actions in response to releases of hazardous substances. The principal objective of the PA is to characterize the site accurately and determine the need for further action by examining site activities, quantities of hazardous substances present, and potential pathways by which contamination could affect public health and the environment. This PA satisfies, for the Camp Swift property, the requirement of the Department of Defense Installation Restoration Program (IRP). The review of both historical and current practices at the property indicated that the activities at Camp Swift include no operations considered to have an adverse impact to the environment. The recommendation, therefore, is that no further IRP action is necessary at this property.

During the past few decades great numbers of meteorites have been recovered from the ice accumulation zones of Antarctica and from the vast Sahara. Although these two great deserts are the two most productive areas, the Southern High Plains in USA (New Mexico and Texas) and Nullarbor Plain, Western Australia have great potential for meteorite recovery. The number of meteorite finds from Roosevelt County, New Mexico alone exceeds 100 in only approximately 11 km{sup 2} area. Most meteorites from this area have been found on the floors of active deflation basins (blowouts) that have been excavated from a mantle of sand dunes. This area has no apparent fluvial or permafrost activity within the last 50,000 years, suggesting that only prevailing winds and natural aridity aid in the concentration and preservation of meteorites. The authors investigated these deflation surfaces in Lea County (the SE corner of New Mexico) and neighboring Winkler County, Texas following a prior search in this area which found two chondrites. They found a tiny H4 chondrite in this search and here they report its mineralogy and petrology along with preliminary data on its exposure history.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with DOE as a cooperating agency, is preparing an EIS that analyzes the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and marine facilities on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron County, Texas, and two parallel 140-mile-long natural gas pipelines from Kleberg County, Texas, to the planned terminal. DOE, Office of Fossil Energy, has an obligation under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act to authorize the export of natural gas, including LNG, unless it finds that the export is not consistent with the public interest.

Irrigation for agriculture is the primary water use in the area of Deaf Smith and Swisher Counties, Texas, and the Ogallala Formation is the main water source. The availability of water in the 12-county area is projected to decrease markedly over the next 5 decades because of the steady depletion of ground water in recoverable storage. Water requirements in the 12-county area are projected to exceed available supplies from about 1990 through 2030. The shortage for the year 2030 is estimated to be approximately 4 million acre-feet under high-growth-rate conditions. Because of its semiarid climate, the area has little available surface water to augment the supply of the Ogallala Formation, which, despite its depletion, could be the principal source of water for the repository. There are, however, other potential sources of water: (1) Lake Mackenzie, on Tule Creek; (2) the Santa Rosa Formation, which underlies much of the Southern High Plains and locally yields moderate amounts of good-quality water; and (3) the Wolfcamp Series, which yields low amounts of highly saline water. The effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants and municipal water systems may also be useful as supplements to the repository's primary water supply.

In the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain, there is a history of oil and gas production extending over 2 to 5 decades. Concurrent with this production history, there has been unprecedented population growth accompanied by vastly increased groundwater demands. Land subsidence on both local and regional bases in this geologic province has been measured and predicted in several studies. The vast majority of these studies have addressed the problem from the standpoint of groundwater usage while only a few have considered the effects of oil and gas production. Based upon field-based computational techniques (Helm, 1984), a model has been developed to predict land subsidence caused by oil and gas production. This method is applied to the Big Hill Field in Jefferson County, Texas. Inputs include production data from a series of wells in this field and lithologic data from electric logs of these same wells. Outputs include predicted amounts of subsidence, the time frame of subsidence, and sensitivity analyses of compressibility and hydraulic conductivity estimates. Depending upon estimated compressibility, subsidence, to date, is predicted to be as high as 20 cm. Similarly, depending upon estimated vertical hydraulic conductivity, the time frame may be decades for this subsidence. These same methods can be applied to other oil/gas fields with established production histories as well as new fields when production scenarios are assumed. Where subsidence has been carefully measured above petroleum reservoir, the model may be used inversely to calculate sediment compressibilities.

An intensive survey and testing program of selected segments of a proposed Department of Energy pipeline were conducted by Coastal Environments, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during December 1985 and January 1986. The proposed pipeline runs from Texas City, Galveston County to Bryan Mound, Brazoria County. The pedestrian survey was preceded by historical records survey to locate possible historic sites within the DOE righ-of-way. Four prehistoric sites within the ROW (41BO159, 160, 161, 162) and one outside the ROW (41BO163) were located. All are Rangia cuneata middens. The survey results are discussed with particular reference to the environmental settings of the sites and the effectiveness of the survey procedure. Two of the sites located within the ROW were subjected to additional testing. The results of the backhoe testing program are included in the site descriptions, and the scientific value of the sites are presented. 52 refs., 20 figs., 10 tabs.

Facies of the Permian San Andres Formation, Howard-Glasscock field, Howard County, Texas, consist mainly of thick shelf carbonates topped by a carbonate-evaporite sabkha unit. Clastics are present as thin shale beds occurring sporadically throughout the sequence. Carbonate facies reflect a broad progradation across a promontory of the Eastern shelf bordering the Midland basin, punctuated by minor transgressions and onlap due to differential subsidence. Core examination demonstrates that the carbonates have been pervasively dolomitized and plugged by sulfates, principally anhydrite. Dolomite crystal size shows a broad increase down-core, while anhydrite content decreases. Anhydrite precipitation appears to increasingly postdate the onset of dolomitization with depth. Reflux processes are felt to be largely responsible for the ubiquitous dolomitization and sulfate precipitation. Porosity developed as a result of a sulfate solution event, producing vuggy, moldic, and intercrystalline dolomitic porosity due to leaching of sulfates from the dolomite fabric. Lateral solution pathways developed, particularly through the leaching of sulfates from packstone allochem replacements and void fills. Insoluble residue content was a major inhibiting factor in solution, especially because of stylolite development in shaly dolomites, which created low-porosity horizons. Hydrocarbon shows are primarily intercrystalline.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with DOE as a cooperating agency, is preparing an EIS that analyzes the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas marine terminal along the Sabine-Neches ship channel (Jefferson County, Texas), about 35 miles of new pipeline, and associated facilities. DOE, Office of Fossil Energy, has an obligation under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act to authorize the export of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas, unless it finds that the export is not consistent with the public interest.

The Big Hill SPR facility located in Jefferson County, Texas has been a permitted operating crude oil storage site since 1986 with benign environmental impacts. However, Congress has not authorized crude oil purchases for the SPR since 1990, and six storage caverns at Big Hill are underutilized with 70 million barrels of available storage capacity. On February 17, 1999, the Secretary of Energy offered the 70 million barrels of available storage at Big Hill for commercial use. Interested commercial users would enter into storage contracts with DOE, and DOE would receive crude oil in lieu of dollars as rental fees. The site could potentially began to receive commercial oil in May 1999. This Environmental Assessment identified environmental changes that potentially would affect water usage, power usage, and air emissions. However, as the assessment indicates, changes would not occur to a major degree affecting the environment and no long-term short-term, cumulative or irreversible impacts have been identified.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared an environmental assessment (EA), DOE/EA-0804, for the proposed replacement of a deteriorated brine disposal pipeline from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Bryan Mound storage facility in Brazoria County, Texas, into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the ocean discharge outfall would be moved shoreward by locating the brine diffuser at the end of the pipeline 3.5 miles offshore at a minimum depth of 30 feet. The action would occur in a floodplain and wetlands; therefore, a floodplain/wetlands assessment has been prepared in conjunction with this EA. Based on the analyses in the EA, DOE has determined that the proposed action is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 USC. 4321, et seg.). Therefore, the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not required, and the Department is issuing this Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). This FONSI also includes a Floodplain Statement of Findings in accordance with 10 CFR Part 1022.

Hayes, a resident of Amagansett who worked at Brookhaven Lab as a custodian from 1958 to 1966, served in an all-black bomber squadron at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. He was among 994 precedent-breaking black soldiers at Tuskegee who passed rigorous tests between 1942 and 1946 to become pilots in the then-segregated armed forces.

The Franklin Mountains are a west tilted fault block mountain range which extends northwards from the city of El Paso, Texas. Geologic mapping in the southern portion of the Franklin Mountains has revealed many previously unrecognized structural complexities. Three large high-angle faults define the boundaries of map. Twenty lithologic units are present in the field area, including the southernmost Precambrian meta-sedimentary rocks in the Franklin Mountains (Lanoria Quartzite and Thunderbird group conglomerates). The area is dominated by Precambrian igneous rocks and lower Paleozoic carbonates, but Cenozoic ( ) intrusions are also recognized. Thin sections and rock slabs were used to describe and identify many of the lithologic units. The Franklin Mountains are often referred to as a simple fault block mountain range related to the Rio Grande Rift. Three critical regions within the study area show that these mountains contain structural complexities. In critical area one, Precambrian granites and rhyolites are structurally juxtaposed, and several faults bisecting the area affect the Precambrian/Paleozoic fault contact. Critical area two contains multiple NNW-trending faults, three sills and a possible landslide. This area also shows depositional features related to an island of Precambrian rock exposed during deposition of the lower Paleozoic rocks. Critical area three contains numerous small faults which generally trend NNE. They appear to be splays off of one of the major faults bounding the area. Cenozoic kaolinite sills and mafic intrusion have filled many of the fault zones.

This report presents the results of mineralogic and petrographic analyses performed on five samples of clay-rich rock from salt-bearing Permian strata sampled by drill core from G. Friemel No. 1 Well, Deaf Smith County, Texas. Five samples of clay-rich rock from depths of about 2457, 2458, 2521, 2548, and 2568 feet were analyzed to determine the amounts of soluble phase (halite) and the amounts and mineralogy of the insoluble phases. The amounts of halite found were 59, 79, 47, 40, and 4 weight percent, respectively, for the samples. The insoluble minerals are predominately clay (20 to 60 volume percent) and anhydrite (up to 17 volume percent), with minor (about 1.0%) and trace amounts of quartz, dolomite, muscovite, and gypsum. The clays include illite, chlorite, and interstratified chlorite-smectite. The results presented in this petrographic report are descriptive, uninterpreted data. 2 references, 7 tables.

The Eva South Morrow Sand Unit is located in western TexasCounty, Oklahoma. The field produces from an upper Morrow sandstone, termed the Eva sandstone, deposited in a transgressive valley-fill sequence. The field is defined as a combination structural stratigraphic trap; the reservoir lies in a convex up -dip bend in the valley and is truncated on the west side by the Teepee Creek fault. Although the field has been a successful waterflood since 1993, reservoir heterogeneity and compartmentalization has impeded overall sweep efficiency. A 4.25 square mile high-resolution, three component three-dimensional (3C3D) seismic survey was acquired in order to improve reservoir characterization and pinpoint the optimal location of a new horizontal producing well, the ESU 13-H.

A project to recover economic amounts of oil from a very mature oil field is being conducted by Laguna Petroleum Corporation of Midland, Texas, with partial funding from a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study shallow carbonate rock reservoirs. The objectives of the project are to use modern engineering methods to optimize oil field management and to use geological and geophysical data to recover untapped potential within the petroleum reservoirs. The integration of data and techniques from these disciplines has yielded results greater than those achievable without their cooperation. The cost of successfully accomplishing these goals is to be low enough for even small independent operators to afford. This article is a report describing accomplishments for the fiscal year 1998-1999.

Information collected and analyzed for a preliminary environmental analysis of geopressured geothermal prospect areas in Colorado and DeWitt Counties, Texas is presented. Specific environmental concerns for each geopressured geothermal prospect area are identified and discussed. Approximately 218 km/sup 2/(85 mi/sup 2/) were studied in the vicinity of each prospect area to: (1) conduct an environmental analysis to identify more and less suited areas for geopressured test wells; and (2) provide an environmental data base for future development of geopressured geothermal energy resources. A series of maps and tables are included to illustrate environmental characteristics including: geology, water resources, soils, current land use, vegetation, wildlife, and meteorological characteristics, and additional relevant information on cultural resources, power- and pipelines, and regulatory agencies. A series of transparent overlays at the scale of the original mapping has also been produced for the purposes of identifying and ranking areas of potential conflict between geopressured geothermal development and environmental characteristics. The methodology for ranking suitability of areas within the two prospect areas is discussed in the appendix. (MHR)

Remote sensing images provide useful physical information, revealing such features as geological structure, vegetation, drainage patterns, and variations in consolidated and unconsolidated lithologies. That technology has been applied to the failed Sierra Blanca (Faskin Ranch) shallow burial low-level radioactive waste disposal site selected by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority. It has been re-examined using data from LANDSAT satellite series. The comparison of the earlier LANDSAT V (5/20/86) (30-m resolution) with the later new, higher resolution ETM imagery (10/23/99) LANDSAT VII data (15-m resolution) clearly shows the superiority of the LANDSAT VII data. The search for surficial indications of evidence of fatal flaws at the Sierra Blanca site utilizing was not successful, as it had been in the case of the earlier remote sensing analysis of the failed Fort Hancock site utilizing LANDSAT V data. The authors conclude that the tectonic activity at the Sierra Blanca site is much less recent and active than in the previously studied Fort Hancock site. The Sierra Blanca site failed primarily on the further needed documentation concerning a subsurface fault underneath the site and environmental justice issues. The presence of this fault was not revealed using the newer LANDSAT VII data. Despite this fact, it must be remembered that remote sensing provides baseline documentation for determining future physical and financial remediation responsibilities. On the basis of the two sites examined by LANDSAT remote sensing imaging, it is concluded that it is an essential, cost-effective tool that should be utilized not only in site examination but also in all nuclear-related facilities.

The objective of this two-phase study is to demonstrate an integrated methodology for reservoir characterization of shallow shelf carbonate reservoir that is feasible, and cost effective for the independent operator. Furthermore, it will provide one of the first public demonstrations of the enhancement of reservoir characterization using high-resolution three dimensional (3D) seismic data. This particular project is evaluating the Grayburg and San Andres reservoirs in the Foster and South Cowden Fields, Ector County, Texas. This 68 year old field was approaching its economic limit and the leases evaluated would have been abandoned in 10 years. A multidisciplinary approach to waterflood design and implementation, along with the addition of reserves by selective infill drilling and deepening, is being applied to this field. This approach in reservoir development will be applicable to a wide range of shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs throughout the US. The first phase of the project included the design, acquisition, and interpretation of the 3D seismic survey, the collection and evaluation of geologic (core and log) data, and engineering (historical production, well test, injection) data from a variety of sources. From this work, a geologically based production history model was simulated. Based on the recommendations made at the end of Phase One, three new wells were drilled, one existing well was deepened, two wells were worked over, one TA`d well was re-entered, and one well was converted to injection. In addition, the quality of the injection water was greatly improved, a step necessary prior to increasing injection in the project area. The realignment of the waterflood and all additional well work await the completion of the seismic based history match and engineering simulation.

Central Power and Light Company (CPL) intends to upgrade its existing transmission line ties with the Commision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) system in Mexico. CPL currently has a single 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission line in the Brownsville area which connects CPL`s system with the system of CFE. This existing line runs between the Brownsville Switching Station, located on Laredo Road in Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, and an existing CFE 69-kV line at the Rusteberg Bend of the Rio Grande in Cameron County. Under current conditions of need, the existing 69-kV line does not possess sufficient capability to engage in appropriate power exchanges. Therefore, CPL is proposing to build a new line to link up with CFE. This proposed line would be a double-circuit line, which would (1) continue (on a slightly relocated route) the existing 69-kV tie from CPL`s Brownsville Switching Station to CFE`s facilities, and (2) add a 138-kV tie from the Military Highway Substation, located on Military Highway (US Highway 281), to CFE`s facilities. The proposed 138/69-kV line, which will be constructed and operated by CPL, will be built primarily on steel single-pole structures within an average 60-foot (ft) wide right-of-way (ROW). It will be approximately 6900--9200 ft (1.3--1.7 miles) in length, depending on the alternative route constructed.

The coring, logging and testing of Bennett Ranch Unit well No. 310 was a cooperative effort between Texas Pacific, owner of the well, and Gruy Federal, Inc. The requirements of the contract, which are summarized in Enclosure 1, Appendix A, include drilling and coring activities. The pressure-coring and associated logging and testing programs in selected wells are intended to provide data on in-situ oil saturation, porosity and permeability distribution, and other data needed for resource characterization of fields and reservoirs in which CO/sub 2/ injection might have a high probability of success. This report presents detailed information on the first such project. This project demonstrates the usefulness of integrating pressure core, log and production data to realistically evaluate a reservoir for carbon dioxide flood. The engineering of tests and analysis of such experimental data requires original thinking, but the reliability of the results is higher than data derived from conventional tests.

Reservoir performance of the South Cowden Grayburg field suggests that only 21 percent of the original oil in place has been recovered. The purpose of this study is to construct a realistic reservoir model to be used to predict the location of the remaining mobile oil. Construction of reservoir models for fluid-flow simulation of carbonate reservoirs is difficult because they typically have complicated and unpredictable permeability patterns. Much of the difficulty results from the degree to which diagenetic overprinting masks depositional textures and patterns. For example, the task of constructing a reservoir model of a limestone reservoir that has undergone only cementation and compaction is easier than constructing a model of a karsted reservoir that has undergone cavern formation and collapse as well as cementation and compaction. The Permian-age carbonate-ramp reservoirs in the Permian Basin, West Texas and New Mexico, are typically anhydritic dolomitized limestone. Because the dolomitization occurred soon after deposition, depositional fabrics and patterns are often retained, and a reservoir model can be constructed using depositional concepts. Recent studies of the San Andres outcrop in the Guadalupe Mountains and the Seminole San Andres reservoir in the Permian Basin illustrate how depositional fabrics and patterns can be used to construct a reservoir model when depositional features are retained.

Data for Texas abandoned oil fields were primarily derived from two sources: (1) Texas Railroad Commission (TRRC), and (2) Dwight's ENERGYDATA. For purposes of this report, abandoned oil fields are defined as those fields that had no production during 1977. The TRRC OILMASTER computer tapes were used to identify these abandoned oil fields. The tapes also provided data on formation depth, gravity of oil production, location (both district and county), discovery date, and the cumulative production of the field since its discovery. In all, the computer tapes identified 9211 abandoned fields, most of which had less than 250,000 barrel cumulative production. This report focuses on the 676 abandoned onshore Texas oil fields that had cumulative production of over 250,000 barrels. The Dwight's ENERGYDATA computer tapes provided production histories for approximately two-thirds of the larger fields abandoned in 1966 and thereafter. Fields which ceased production prior to 1966 will show no production history nor abandonment date in this report. The Department of Energy hopes the general availability of these data will catalyze the private sector recovery of this unproduced resource.

The Petro-Chemical Systems, Inc. site, located near Liberty, Texas, is a site where unauthorized disposal of petroleum-based oils has taken place. Although there is evidence of past exposure to site contaminants, the best available evidence does not indicate that humans are currently being exposed to site contaminants at levels that could cause adverse health effects. Contaminated ground water, surface water, soils, and surface water sediments have been found on the site. Although sampling was done for 144 priority pollutants, the primary contaminants of concern are benzene, ethylbenzene, xylene, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and lead. Because the greatest threat to public health would be contamination of drinking water, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has recommended that necessary actions are taken to insure that private wells do not become contaminated with site contaminants.

A reservoir engineering study was conducted of waterflood performance in the South Cowden field, an Upper Permian Grayburg reservoir on the Central Basin Platform in West Texas. The study was undertaken to understand the historically poor waterflood performance, evaluate three techniques for incorporating petrophysical measurements and geological interpretation into heterogeneous reservoir models, and identify issues in heterogeneity modeling and fluid-flow scaleup that require further research. The approach included analysis of relative permeability data, analysis of injection and production data, heterogeneity modeling, and waterflood simulation. The poor South Cowden waterflood recovery is due, in part, to completion of wells in only the top half of the formation. Recompletion of wells through the entire formation is estimated to improve recovery in ten years by 6 percent of the original oil in place in some areas of the field. A direct three-dimensional stochastic approach to heterogeneity modeling produced the best fit to waterflood performance and injectivity, but a more conventional model based on smooth mapping of layer-averaged properties was almost as good. The results reaffirm the importance of large-scale heterogeneities in waterflood modeling but demonstrate only a slight advantage for stochastic modeling at this scale. All the flow simulations required a reduction to the measured whole-core k{sub v}/k{sub h} to explain waterflood behavior, suggesting the presence of barriers to vertical flow not explicitly accounted for in any of the heterogeneity models. They also required modifications to the measured steady-state relative permeabilities, suggesting the importance of small-scale heterogeneities and scaleup. Vertical flow barriers, small-scale heterogeneity modeling, and relative permeability scaleup require additional research for waterflood performance prediction in reservoirs like South Cowden.

The McFarland/Magutex Queen reservoir complex lies along the northeastern edge of the Central basin platform in the west Texas Permian basin and produces oil from the Permian Queen Formation. Current production from this complex totals 42 million stock-tank barrels (MMSTB) of an estimated 219 MMSTB of original oil in place, with an estimated 90 MMSTB of remaining mobile oil (RMO). The gross pay interval contains two parasequences consisting of progradational, 30-ft-thick, upward-shoaling facies packages. Facies include shoreface, mixed tidal channel and intertidal flat, and supratidal. Elongate shoreface facies are characterized by poorly consolidated, massive to thinly laminated sandstones. The supratidal facies, which act as permeability barriers, are characterized by algal-laminated dolostone and nodular, laminated, and massive anhydrite containing halite and gypsum pseudomorphs. Highest production and the largest amount of the 90 MMSTB of RMO is associated with the shoreface and tidal-channel facies. Bulk pore volume storage capacity and permeability are also highest within these two facies. Sandstones are arkosic, containing anhydrite and dolomite cements. Accessory minerals are clays, authigenic feldspar, and dolomite. Three main pore types are recognized: interparticle, moldic and intraconstituent, and micropores. Moldic and intraconstituent porosity is associated with leached feldspars and anhydrite cement dissolution. Microporosity is associated with syndepositional, grain-coating corrensite, dissolution-enhanced feldspar cleavage planes, and authigenic multifaceted dolomite. Microporosity derived from clays and dolomite is formed preferentially in tidal-channel and intertidal flat facies.

Early Pennsylvanian wrenching along the Red River-Matador Arch (Tectonic Zone) created a braided series of en echelon faults and folds with associated pop-up structures and pull-apart basins. Local extension, or overstepping, in Southeast Cottle County, Texas, has produced the deepest pull-apart basin along the arch with over 10,000` of structural relief. The emerging Wichita-Amarillo Uplift, to the north, provided an abundant sediment source, which prograded rapidly southward as an alluvial fan-braided river complex. Exposure of basement rocks and lower Paleozoic sediments along the Red River-Matador Arch, also contributed to the basin fill. Syntectonic sedimentation led to the accumulation of over 6000` of Bend (Atoka-lower Des Moines) sediments within the basin. Deposition was dominated initially by alluvial fan to fluvial siliciclastics. As basin subsidence was further amplified by sediment loading, accommodation exceeded sedimentation capturing a large segment of the southward prograding Wichita-Amarillo derived clastic wedge. Encroachment of the late Atoka to lower Des Moines epeiric sea promoted further evolution of depositional environments to fan deltas, marine dominated clastics and, later, localized carbonate development. Type III kerogen rich organic shales produced abundant gas prone source rocks. The extreme depth of the basin combined with the local geothermal gradient provided for significant hydrocarbon generation. By early 1988 new well control helped revise previous stratigraphic correlation demonstrating a rapidly expanding lower Des Moines to Atokan section. The drilling of the Gunn Oil Company-Brothers No. 1 to a total depth of 10,301` in the Mississippian Chappel Limestone, encountered 2025` of Bend sediments, with 279` of gross Bend Conglomerate (162` of net pay). The Brothers No. 1 was potentialled on 11/19/89 with a CAOF of 6.0 MMCFD and filed as the field discovery for the Broken Bone (Bend Conglomerate) field.

Texas has identified a potential site in Hudspeth County in far West Texas near the town of Fort Hancock. Over the past year the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority has been conducting detailed geology, hydrology, meteorology, soils, and flora and fauna evaluations. An authorization by the Board of Directors of the Authority to proceed with a license application, assuming that the detailed evaluation indicates that the site is suitable, is expected by September. A prototype license has been prepared in anticipation of the order to proceed with licensing, and the formal license application is expected to be submitted to the Texas Department of Health-Bureau of Radiation Control in December, meeting the license application milestone. Although site selection processes in all siting areas across the country have experienced organized opposition, El Paso County has funded a particularly well-organized, well-financed program to legally and technically stop consideration of the Fort Hancock site prior to the licensing process. Many procedural, regulatory, and technical issues have been raised which have required responses from the Authority in order to proceed with licensing. This has provided a unique perspective of what to expect from well-organized opposition at the licensing stage. This paper presents an update on the Texas siting activity with detailed information on the site evaluation and license application. Experience of dealing with issues raised by opposition relating to NRC guidelines and rules is also discussed.

Burns, Hay named new AAAS Fellows Lab scientists Burns, Hay named new AAAS Fellows The AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. February 3, 2009 Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on top of a once-remote mesa in northern New Mexico with the Jemez mountains as a backdrop to research and innovation covering multi-disciplines from bioscience, sustainable energy sources, to plasma physics and new materials. Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on

The U.S. Department of Energy developed this supplementary statement to analyze the environmental impacts of design modifications to the Superconducting Super Collider that were made following the publication of the Record of Decision that selected Ellis County, Texas, as the location of the laboratory facility. This statement supplements DOE/EIS-0138, Superconducting Super Collider.

This EA evaluates the environmental impacts of a proposal to provide $1.94 million in cost-shared funding to the Houston Advanced Research Center for the Battleground Energy Recovery Project, which would produce 8 megawatts of electricity from high pressure steam generated by capturing heat that is currently lost at the Clean Harbors Deer Park facility. The proposed project was selected by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to advance research and demonstration of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

The 72nd Texas Legislature specifically delineated a 400-square-mile area in southeast Hudspeth County where siting activities would be limited. The Authority was given unprecedented powers of property access and eminent domain and expanded budget authority to conduct site selection, characterization, and licensing. In the summer of 1991, the Authority identified five general siting areas in the prescribed region, and in the fall of 1991, the Authority narrowed the siting area to one large ranch composed of about 16,000 acres--called the Faskin Ranch. Site characterization began in 1991 and will be complete by September 1993. In September 1991, Authority staff began preparing the license application and included all available information on the Faskin Ranch. At its February meeting, the Authority`s board directed staff to submit the license application to the Texas Water Commission (the new Texas radiation control agency). The license application was submitted on March 2, 1992, and on April 15, 1992, the Commission determined that the application was sufficiently complete to begin review. Discrete technical packages such as groundwater hydrology, surface water hydrology, design, etc., will be submitted to the agency for review on the completion of each package. A schedule has been developed to allow the regulators the maximum time possible to review critical technical areas while minimizing the total review period.

The Pennsylvanian-Wolfcamp section in the Palo Duro Basin includes brine aquifers that are considered to be the most important ground-water flow paths in the deep-basin system. This report is the fifth in a series providing summary documentation of studies that subdivide the section into hydrogeologic units based on their judged relative capacities for transmitting water. This report extends the hydrogeologic study area to the eastern Texas Panhandle, north-central Texas, and southwestern Oklahoma. It includes 37 counties in Texas and Oklahoma. Underground patterns of rock distribution are delineated from a hydrologic perspective and at a level of detail appropriate for numerical modeling of regional ground-water flow. Hydrogeologic units are defined and characterized so that appropriate porosity and permeability values can be assigned to each unit during construction of the numerical models (not part of this study), and so that modelers can combine units where necessary. In this study, hydrogeologic units have been defined as mappable, physically continuous rock bodies that function in bulk as water-transmitting or water-retarding units relative to adjacent rocks. Interpretations are made primarily from geophysical logs. Hydrologic characteristics are assessed on the basis of properties typically associated with certain lithologies (e.g., sandstones are more pervious than shales) and on the basis of gross variations in effective porosity (particularly in carbonate sequences). 44 refs., 32 figs., 1 tab.

Texas Clean Energy Project Texas Clean Energy Project On March 12, 2010, DOE announced the award of a Cooperative Agreement to Summit Texas Clean Energy, LLC to construct the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) poly-generation facility with fully integrated CO2 capture. Under Round 3 of the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), DOE is providing up to $450 million in financial assistance, including funding from the Recovery Act of 2009. Due to the

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with DOE as a cooperating agency, announced its intent to prepare an EA to analyze the potential environmental impacts of a proposal to construct and operate natural gas liquefaction and export facilities at the existing Golden Pass liquefied natural gas terminal in Jefferson County, Texas. In June 2014, FERC announced that due to changes in the project location and scope, it would prepare an EIS. See DOE/EIS-0501.

Identical multi-use solar buildings were built and tested on two farms in 1982. Actual (not simple) pay back periods are given for the two buildings for hay and for grain drying. Comparisons between solar and computed propane gas costs are reported.

Amount 61% of the water used by Texans is ground-water. Some areas, both municipal and rural, depend entirely on ground-water. In many areas long term withdrawal is lowering the water levels, causing surface land subsidence, salt-water encroachment, and reducing future reservoir availability. The increasing probability of seepage from radioactive and toxic wastes, herbicide residues, septic systems, and oilfield brines is threatening dangerous contamination of fresh ground-water reservoirs. The Texas Department of Water Resources, the Texas Department of Health, State and private colleges and universities, the US Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, various underground water districts, among others, are cooperating with concerned hydrologists in a concentrated program to increase the efficiency of ground-water use and development, preserve the aquifer reservoirs, and decrease the pollution potential. 88 references.

Texas Energy Incentive Programs, Texas Updated September 2015 What public-purpose-funded energy efficiency programs are available in my state? The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) oversees a set of statewide "standard offer" and market transformation programs that are available to customers in each of the investor-owned utilities' service territories. The programs are funded through a systems benefits charge on transmission and distribution services and are administered by the